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General Electric's HRM and Sustainable Practices
- 1. S GE’s History of HRM & Sustainable Practices Kaplan University GB520-02N Dennis Stovall & Associates
- 2. About GE S Founded in 1891 S Headquartered in Fairfield, CT S One of 12 Original Dow Jones Entities S World Leading Industrial Conglomerate
- 3. Innovative Technology S Pioneers in Innovative Technology S Light Bulb S Phonograph S Movie Projector S Avionic Development S Jet Engines S Energy Supply S Modern Transportation S Media & Satellite Communications
- 4. GE Employees S 305,000 Employees S Highly Trained S Forbes Magazine short list S Dedication to High Standards
- 5. GE Corporate Culture S Focuses on: S Innovation S Employee Development S Collaboration S Best Practices S Open Communication S Integrity & Human Rights S Health & Safety
- 6. Products & Stats S $142.6 Billion in Revenue S $15.18 Billion in Net Income S Manufacturing & Distribution S Industry Leader
- 7. Products & Stats S Front Line Products S Consistent Revenue S Strong Industrial Segment Growth S Continued Stabalization in Financial Services
- 8. Strategic Human Resources S HR has Power and Primacy S Use Non-Bureaucratic Evaluation System S Face Straight into Charged Relationships S Middle 70% is the Heart of Organization S Flat Organizational Chart
- 9. Sustainable Practices S Ecomagination S Job Enrichment S Recruiting
- 10. Sustainable Practices S Training & Development S Selection S Strategic Compensation
- 11. Conclusion S Negative & Positive Ways to Deal with Economic Downturn S Negative Methods Hurts the Recession More S GE Weathered the Storm in a Positive Way S HRM Best Practices Persevered
- 12. References S Byrne, J.A. (1998). How Jack Welch Runs GE. Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/1998/23/b3581001.htm S GE Fact Sheet (2014). Retrieved fromhttp://www.ge.com/about-us/fact-sheet S GE Lighting (2013). Bright Ideas for Lighting Your Home Retrieved from: http://www.gelighting.com/LightingWeb/na/consumer/products/fixtures/general- purpose/overview/index/jsp#sthash.DFQaSrQ3.dpuf S Male, B (2010). 5 Management Lessons from Jack Welch. Business Inside. http://www.businessinsider.com/5-management-lessons-you-should-learn-from- jack-welch-2010-3#ixzz2yobe3Mfc
- 13. References Continued S Osak, M. (2010). Two Best Practices in Sustainability: GE and Nike. Source, Mitchell Osak Online/ Strategy for the C-Suite. Retrieved fromhttp://mitchellosak.com/2010/06/23/two-best-practices-in-sustainability- ge-and-nike/ S Oxman, J.A. (2002). The Hidden Leverage of Human Capital. Source: MIT Management Review. 42(4) 2002, 79-88. S The History of the Light (2013). Retrieved from http://www.energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb S Waters, R.C. (2009). Evolution of Leadership Development at General Electric: Source: Engineering Management Journal Vol. 21 No. 1. 42- 46.
- 14. References Continued S Watson, G.H. (1994). Cycles of Learning: Observations of Jack Welch. Business Systems Solutions, Inc. http://asq.org/pub/sixsigma/past/vol1_issue1/cycles.html
Editor's Notes
- This business analysis focuses on the General Electric Corporation and how it has achieved success through over a century of industrial enterprising, thus becoming a world leading industrial conglomerate. GE is one of the 12 original Dow Jones industrial entities circa 1891 and since that time the firm has grown exponentially by way of acquisitions and mergers.
- General Electric was founded in 1892 by Thomas Edison, Charles Coffin, Elihu Thomson, and Edwin Houston. The company is headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut. GE is one of the 12 original Dow Jones industrial entities and has grown exponentially by way of acquisitions and mergers. General Electric is a world leading industrial conglomerate.
- GE’s innovations in industrial technology has made it renown in the worlds of manufacture and sale for famous brand name goods such as the electric light bulb, phonographs and movie projector to name just a few. Included, along with a notable list of well-known household appliances and electronics, some of the finest industrial accomplishments by GE involve avionic development, jet engine manufacturing, financing and energy supply, modern transportation, innovational media and satellite communications.
- As of December 2012, GE maintains 305,000 skillfully trained and dedicated employees worldwide. This diversified and well trained workforce is a contributing factor as to why the company maintains its position atop Forbes Magazine’s, short list (Waters, 2009). Merit-based programs such as recruiting, training, mentoring, tracking, deploying and performance evaluations serve to define GE’s human resources (HR) development systems. Such dedication to high standards of quality and professional excellence doesn’t happen by chance; it does however, through GE’s determined efforts to manage its resources, thus enabling it to provide all of its employees with the very best training and information throughout its vast network business units.
- Jack Welch would refer to GE in his annual letter to shareholders as an evolving company of “A” products, “A” services delivered by “A” employees. Jack Welch was instrumental in transforming the company into a 500 billion dollar enterprise during his 20 year tenure as CEO of General Electric. One of the firms most strategic and prolific goals are to thoroughly integrate HRM into every facet of the organization. (Mello, 2011) GE’s corporate culture focusing on ensuring that the company is innovative in its products and practices. They put much emphasis on training and developing their employees and collaboration. General Electric strive to use the best practices and encourage open communication with the organization. They enact business with integrity and with a concern for human rights, health and safety.
- GE has recorded revenue of $142.46 billion dollars and a net Income of $15.18 billion, indicating of how GE has established its dominion with regards to manufacturing and distribution. GE produces a large assortment of products which include consumer electronics, aviation systems and services, marine engines, military engines, washers and dryers, cooktops and wall ovens. This array of innovations serves as an indication to which all historical inventions are noted for, that being the great forerunners. And in this case this great forerunner to these notable products would be the GE Bulb.
- As GE’s front-line products continue to provide consistent revenue, the company also designs and distributes parts for aviation, automotive and healthcare. One of the premier innovative products GE has embarked upon is Gemstone spectral imaging, cardiovascular and neuro imaging using the CT750 HD The CT750 HD provides groundbreaking High-Definition images of internal human organs to assist doctors with a cleaner visual of internal scans. According to the GE’s 2013 Annual Report, earnings from continuing operations increased 4% to $15.2 billion in 2013 and increased 4% to $14.6 billion in 2012, reflecting strong industrial segment growth and continued stabilization in financial services during the last two years. The data below indicates how well the company can bounce back and sustain throughout the years. Being able to manage financially within the means and expectation of the organization is critical.
- Jack Welch stated six directives towards people management: elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers, use rigorous, non-bureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance, create effective mechanisms, i.e. money, recognition, and training, to motivate and retain, face straight into charged relationships - with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters, fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization, and design the organizational chart to be as flat as possible. Under the leadership of Jack Welch the human resources function was brought from third into the organization to second, ahead of the finance department. GE is an excellent example of the positive results of intentional strategic human resources management.
- GE’s Ecomagination is a specifically designed business unit that has been allocated a generous amount of GE’s resources for the purpose of supplying the firms customers, such as giant industries, the home based consumer, diversified economies and their respective business units located all over the world with solutions to their energy conservation needs. These needs include energy, water use, waste and carbon emissions, to name a few and the list is growing-globally year by year. General Electric as focuses on job enrichment in order to engage its employees. In keeping with its commitments to provide job enrichment, GE sought ways to employ innovative measures that would serve their customers and their own sustainability initiatives as well (Osak, 2010). They endeavored to find ways to further develop sustainable solutions that would align their strategic goals of harnessing sustainability as a science and a business globally while integrating the quality of these initiatives throughout their definitive corporate culture. GE focuses a lot of energy on recruiting and finding the right candidates. In order to expand the potential of Ecomagination strategically, GE will probably rely on the tried and true ‘GE Way’ of staff integration which entails recruiting the best and the brightest from virtually every corner of the world and from virtually every business unit that the firm owns-which they’ve done numerous times over the years. The experiences and accomplishments generated by the efforts put into Ecomagination are posed to be absorbed and assimilated throughout GE’s entire internal as well as external infrastructures.
- GE focuses on Training and Development. GE’s training and development standards that have been so very successful in guiding its technical and managerial skill development training- will once again prove their worth. General Electric is also very careful with their staff selections. GE selectively qualified staff will without a doubt be assigned to fit every conceivable aspect where Ecomagination will be poised to strategically engage its targeted goals. GE also utilizes strategic compensation to motivate their employees. With regards to General Electric’s C-suite executives, and others highly trained in the fields of R&D, and energy renewal; these top executives and well those trained specialist’s understand what is to be gained from making Ecomagination a top earner with regards to being on the A-list among GE’s unitary portfolios, suffice it to say that Nobel Prizes are won in this same manner.
- During economic downturns it is crucial for an organization to cut back on spending. It can ultimately involve the closing down of some unprofitable units and unfortunately involves the employees who staff these particular units. Ruthless downsizing is well known and it still exists in many business arenas. This disruptive business practice can impair the labor market and extend the damages inflicted during recessionary periods. Through ethical practices during economic downturns, more positive results can be achieved. Dealing with these challenges positively is the GE way and it was Jack Welch who instituted steps in which to confront these unfortunate occurrences; through the channeling of communications focused upon alternatives in which to –‘weather the storm’- to every member throughout the GE Corporation. It is through executive actions and organizational accountability such as this that industry high standards are preserved and HRM best practices persevere on the behalf of everyone who finds they have to work for a living (Oxman,.2002).